The Crossroads Care Center in Woodstock, Illinois was fined by the Illinois Department of Public Health for failure to prevent a bed sore from re-opening, as well as for the development of friction shearing tears on a resident’s thighs.
Regular readers of this blog will be familiar with bed sores. These wounds, also known as pressure ulcers and decubitus ulcers are caused by one or more contributing factors that are well known and easily controlled in a well run nursing home. Malnutrition and dehydration, failure to change damp or soiled clothing, and, most importantly, neglecting to reposition a patient can easily lead to the development of bed sores.
Less well known will be the concept of shearing tears. The resident at Crossroads Care Center required a catheter because of urinary incontinence. Catheters are tubes that enter the urethra but the tubes are secured to the body with tape. Typically, catheters are not considered permanent solutions because they increase the chance of infections. To prevent this, the tape needs to be removed and the catheter needs to be cleaned regularly. As we get older our skin becomes more and more fragile. When the tape is removed and reapplied over and over again it can actually tear the skin, and that’s what has been happening to the resident at Crossroads Care Center.
Nursing home inspectors observed the resident in a chair for hours even though doctor’s orders called for her to be repositioned every two hours. During the inspection, Crossroads Care Center staff claimed to be unaware that the resident had a bed sore. There was no evidence that the bed sore had any documentation or that the resident’s physician had been made aware of it.
As an Illinois bed sore lawyer, I know that such injuries are one of the most common signs of nursing home neglect, and, if left untreated, can often prove fatal. If you have a loved one who has developed bed sores in an Illinois nursing home, or if bed sores that were already present have gotten worse, contact my law offices for a free and confidential evaluation of your case.
Other blog posts of interest:
Failures in care lead to bed sores at Park Place of Belvidere
Asta Care of Bloomington cited for bed sores
Sunny Hill in Joliet cited for bed sores